Levin In Good Health After Fleeing Lebanon

February 17, 1985|United Press International

WIESBADEN, WEST GERMANY — American reporter Jeremy Levin, given a clean bill of health by doctors, rested Saturday with his family and made plans to return home after 11 months of captivity in the hands of Moslem extremists in Lebanon.

The 52-year-old Levin, who was Beirut bureau chief for Cable News Network when he was forced into a car by a gunman March 7, flew Friday to West Germany where he was reunited with his family.

Despite the 11-month ordeal in which he was kept in solitary confinement, ``Mr. Levin is in good health, and there should be no reason to (prevent) his return to the United States,`` said a military spokesman at the U.S. Air Force Hospital in Wiesbaden.

The spokesman said no departure date has been set, but the Levins were expected to leave for the United States during the weekend.

Levin surrendered to Syrian troops in eastern Lebanon Thursday, saying he had escaped his kidnappers by climbing out of a building using blankets tied together.

In a telephone call to a Western news agency in Beirut, a man claiming to represent the pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad movement said Levin was released, ``and if he wants to say he escaped, then certainly he is crazy.``

``As for the other detainees we are holding, one of them has been sentenced to death,`` the Arabic-speaking caller said, refusing to give further details.